I once hit a home run in the same place that I pooped my pants

March 21, 2011

3 minute read

Last week was spring break for our students. Around here, it seems like everyone goes on vacation for spring break so we took the week off from FUEL and just hung out with students. All of us took a little time at the end of the week to rest and relax as well. I chose to head home to North Carolina to spend that time with Nicole and my family.

On Saturday, me and Nicole headed to a park called Recreation Acres. I grew up about a mile and a half or so from Rec Acres as we called it. I would ride my bike there all the time. I still remember feeling like I was flying going to the park because it was all downhill and then feeling like I was riding up a mountain because it was all uphill on the way back.

Rec Acres was the park in my hometown that had all the baseball fields. I played tee ball there when I was five and played there until I was 15. I remember going there to watch our church league softball games. Another time I went there to watch the senior league (13-15 year olds) late game because a guy from church was playing in it. I was probably 11 at the time. I thought the field was absolutely huge and the guys playing in the game were amazing. One guy in particular stood out to me because he was wearing the pinstripe pants that the middle school baseball team wore. I thought he had to be great if he was on the middle school team.

Needless to say, I have a lot of memories there.

On Saturday, me and Nicole were just there to help her learn how to play disc golf. We went to the football field and grabbed five discs and started tossing them around. The entire time I heard the “ping” of baseballs against aluminum bats from all across the park. There were teams practicing on the three fields around us. One time, while walking to grab the discs after we threw them, I pointed to a spot on one of the fields and said, “Hey, do you see that sign out there in left field? The white one? I hit my first home run ever over that sign and over the road behind it. It was off of Jacob Moore. I almost hit a Hummer. I was 12.”

As we were walking around chasing discs and having a fun time, I was flooded with memory after memory from that park. I could keep telling story after story of things that happened (like the time I pooped my pants right before a game when I was seven). Recreation Acres is a place that I loved and that brings back instant memories the second I pull in the parking lot even though most of those memories are 10-15 years old.

So here’s my question: Are you making memories where you are now? If you were to drive to where you spend your time now ten years from now, would you be able to remember the times that you spent there? Will certain things trigger smiles because of the memories that you made?

Life can be tough and we can get into ruts and just survive. We can survive going to work. We can survive paying the bills. We can survive going to church.

Or we can make the most of all of it.

Through all of the busyness and distractions of this week, take time to go out and make a memory. Do something that you’ll be able to remember down the road. Slow down. Push your agenda back until next week. Have fun.

If we don’t make memories now, what are we going to be able to think back on ten years into the future?